(EXPIRED) Best Western Might Have A Surprisingly Good Award Sale

Please could somebody pass the smelling salts because Best Western appears to be running a surprisingly good award sale for the next couple of months. However, the wording of the offer suggests it might not be quite as good as they’re making it sound.

The Deal

• Best Western is reducing the number of points required for award stays:
  • Properties normally costing 12,000-24,000 points will only cost 10,000 points.
  • Properties normally costing 28,000-40,000 points will only cost 20,000 points. 
  • Properties normally costing 56,000-70,000 points will only cost 40,000 points.
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• Best Western Rewards members can redeem points for a free night at a deeply discounted rate of 10,000, 20,000 or 40,000 points depending on the hotel and the night. Hotels which otherwise would have been 12,000 to 24,000 points could be available for just 10,000 points per night during the promotional period. Hotels which would have been 28,000 to 40,000 points per night could be available for just 20,000 points, and hotels which would have been 56,000 through 70,000 points per night could be available for only 40,000 points.
• Discounted free night redemptions are only valid for stays between December 6, 2021 and February 6, 2022 and bookings must be made in advance.
• This offer is only available in the US and Canada.

Quick Thoughts

This award sale appeared to be too good to be true and in fact it almost seemed like Best Western was underselling how good it could be. That’s because the landing page for this offer states that you can save up to 50% on award redemptions whereas you could actually save up to 58.3% if you were to book a property for 10,000 points that normally costs 24,000 points.

There’s some potentially tricky wording in the offer’s description though. For starters, there’s a reference to “depending on the hotel and the night”. That makes it seem like not all hotels are participating and/or that there are blackout dates.

They’ve also stated the discounted award nights “could be available” which once again makes it seem like the ability to book the reduced awards could be based on a property’s whims and/or blackout dates.

Perhaps I’m being too cynical though and that that wording is just there to cover them in the event that a hotel’s allocation of rooms for award nights ends up getting booked up. I’m not familiar enough with Best Western Rewards to know – despite living in hotels and Airbnbs for the last four years, we’ve spent a grand total of two nights in Best Western properties in that time, both of which were booked using Hotels.com Rewards free nights rather than booking directly.

If the promotion does work as advertised, getting to save up to 58.3% on award nights for the next couple of months is a potentially fantastic offer that can help you stretch the value of your Best Western Rewards points.

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